Hero on the Western Front: Discovering Alvin York's WWI Battlefield

By Michael Kelly

They knew it was the end. Weakened by four years of war, the reality had finally dawned on the Germans that their armies could never stop the combined might of the Allied forces, now bolstered by the fresh, enthusiastic Americans, who were now determined to be involved in the conflict that had engulfed the world.The US effort in 1918, in what became known as the Hundred Days Offensive, was focused on the Argonne Forest. It was there that 1,200,000 men were deployed in what was to be the largest offensive in the United States military history.It was in the fighting in the Argonne Forest that one of the most remarkable incidents in the entire First World War took place. In October 1918, Corporal Alvin Cullum York single-handedly captured 132 Germans and killed twenty-one in a desperate fire-fight.Yorks battalion of the 328th Infantry Regiment had become pinned down by heavy machine-gun and artillery fire. Its commander sent Sergeant Bernard Early, four non-commissioned officers, including the recently promoted Corporal York, and thirteen privates to infiltrate the German positions and neutralise the machine-guns.The small American force came upon a large group of enemy troops having breakfast, and these were taken prisoner. They then came under fire from German machine-guns which left eight men were killed or wounded and York as the senior NCO. York and the survivors returned fire and silenced the enemy, allowing the Americans to rejoin their battalion with the 132 prisoners in tow.York was promoted to Sergeant and he received the Congressional Medal of Honor.The site of this famous action was believed to have been identified in 2009 and a memorial erected by the French authorities. However, a team of archaeologists, with help from the French Department of Archaeology and the use of modern day Geographic Information Science, believe that the memorial is incorrectly situated, and have uncovered thousands of exhibits to support their claim.Complete with detailed plans and diagrams, and a rich variety of photographs of locations and artefacts, Michael Kelly presents not only a fascinating account of Yorks determined courage, but also a detective story as the team unravels the evidence to reveal the exact ravine where the most famous US military action of the First World War took place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Aug 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781526700773

Michael Kelly

Michael Kelly is the former Series Editor for the Year's Best Weird Fiction. He's a Shirley Jackson Award and British Fantasy Award-winner, and a World Fantasy Award nominee. His fiction has appeared in a number of journals and anthologies, including Black Static, The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 21 & 24, Postscripts, Weird Fiction Review, and has been previously collected in Scratching the Surface, Undertow & Other Laments, and All the Things We Never See. He is Editor-in-Chief of Undertow Publications.

Book preview

PART I

Events in the Argonne Forest

It’s not the size of the dog in a fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Mark Twain

Chapter 1

The Hero

Alvin Cullum York was born in Pall Mall, in the Valley of the Three Forks of the Wolf River, Tennessee, on 13 December 1887. Alvin was the third son of William and Mary and came after the arrival of Henry and Joe. He was followed in turn by Sam and Albert, his sister Hattie, brothers George and James, sister Lillie, brother Robert and sister Lucy in that order.

The hardships of living in the outback of Tennessee meant that York plied a meagre existence from farming. York became a hunter and, resultantly, a great marksman.

Regional history was smattered with acts of violence. During the American Civil War it attracted the unwanted attentions of Civil War Union bushwhackers and Confederate guerrillas, during which time the population suffered fearfully, including York’s family; his maternal grandfather was murdered by Union bushwhackers. Survival in such a harsh environment was paramount and it provided the foundation that was to shape York’s life.

His marksmanship was such that he won many shooting contests. These would comprise of turkey shoots, where the unfortunate animals were tied behind logs with only their heads showing. The competitors would shoot from a standing position, 60 yards away. They would pay ten cents a shot and if they had a hit they would get the turkey.

York’s crack shooting was going to be of great benefit in the war that was to come and, without doubt, was to save his life in the Argonne Forest and ensure him a place in the annals of American history.

In his early days, York lived a high life of drinking, gambling and fighting in the border bars of Tennessee and Kentucky known as ‘Blind Tigers’. In 1914, his best friend, Everett Delk, was killed in a bar fight in Static, Kentucky. The realisation that this death was completely senseless had a profound effect on York.

He thought long and hard. He was taken to going on long walks in the mountains and eventually he decided to finish with the life he was leading. In that same year, he went to the Wolf River church, where he’d listen to the Reverend H.H. Russell from Indiana. He so impressed York that he gave up smoking, drinking, swearing and fighting and joined the Church of Christ in Christian Union (CCICU).

York’s religious beliefs remained with him for the rest of his life: his conscription into the Army, his period at war in France and for the four decades he survived after the First World War.

Gracie Williams was one of thirteen children born to Mr and Mrs Frank Williams, who owned the farm adjoining the York place. Gracie and her parents strongly disapproved of Alvin’s wild behaviour and reform was the only path that might lead him to a successful courtship. Alvin was thirteen years’ older than Gracie and her father considered him too old for her. Despite the obstacles, Alvin and Gracie’s relationship grew until the autumn of 1917, when the distant war in Europe intruded on the isolated valleys of the Cumberland Plateau and Alvin was summoned to report for induction by the Fentress County Draft Board in Jamestown on 15 November. He departed for basic training at Camp Gordon, Georgia, the next day. At their last meeting before he departed, Gracie promised to marry him when his military service was over.

York suffered deep mental anguish about becoming a soldier. David Lee says that the violence he had seen in the borders reinforced York’s religious objection to fighting and it had:

… left him with a difficult choice. Taught that both religion and patriotism were virtues, he was now troubled and uncertain because they seemed to indicate such opposite courses of action.¹

In addition, York’s family ancestors, who had fought for their country since the Revolution, felt a close kinship with such frontier greats as Andrew Jackson, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston. All these things weighed heavily on his mind as his drafting date drew ever closer:

One moment I would make up my mind to follow God and the next I would hesitate and almost make up my mind to follow Uncle Sam.²

With the persuasion and assistance of his Pastor, Rosier Pile, York applied for the conscientious objector status based on his religion. David Lee has stated the Fentress County Draft Board refused his application and dismissed subsequent appeals because the CCIU had no doctrine other than the Bible. York reluctantly joined the Army.

After basic training at Camp Gordon, York was assigned to Company G, 2nd Battalion, 328th Infantry, 82nd (All American) Division. He was labelled as a conscientious objector by his fellow soldiers³ and made few friends in his unit. However, he was extremely fortunate in having Captain Edward Danforth as his company commander and George Buxton as his battalion commander. These men were both well educated, had strong religious faith, and appreciated York’s beliefs, recognising York was suffering some mental turmoil.

Through a combination of pastoral counselling and education they helped him reconcile the conflict between patriotic and religious duty. Tom Skeyhill, who would later write York’s Own Life Story, felt that he consoled himself with the belief that American military intervention was the only hope for peace in Europe and his role was that of a ‘peacemaker’.

The 82nd Division arrived in France during the latter part of May 1918. After trench warfare training the division was in place in the line in the Saint-Mihiel sector by June. The Saint-Mihiel Offensive began on 12 September 1918 and was the first completely American military operation of the Great War. York emerged from the offensive promoted to corporal and squad leader. The Meuse-Argonne Offensive followed on 26 September. The 82nd Division was initially kept in reserve and was not committed until 6 October. It was ordered into action as part of an assault designed to rescue elements of the 308th Infantry, 77th Division, a unit that would be forever remembered as ‘The Lost Battalion’ that had been cut off and surrounded since 2